It is well known in the art to provide finishing plates of finished wood or other material for unfinished treads, risers, and/or stringers of an unfinished staircase frame. Typically, the plates are installed after the unfinished staircase frame has been installed in the building. In general, for each tread and riser, the tread is measured by a workman and a corresponding finished tread plate and riser plate is cut, fitted and then secured to the tread and riser of the frame. Similarly, a finished stringer plate may be measured, cut, and fitted to one or more stringers, whether uncovered stringers which face openly into a surrounding room or wall stringers extending adjacent a wall.
Unfortunately, for such conventional staircases and finishing plates, the measuring, cutting, and fitting of the finishing plates must often be performed by workmen on-site at the building and require skilled workmen to ensure a nice finish, especially at the intersection corner between riser plates and a staircase open side stringer plate. Accordingly, installation is labour intensive and, therefore, costly. Additionally, as the sizing and fitting of the plates may involve substantial manual cutting of the plates on site, there is a risk of error in cutting and sizing, which may further increase costs. Finally, the cutting, sizing, and fitting of the plates on site in the building further increases risk of damage to the plates.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved prefabricated staircase and finishing plate arrangement therefore and method of installation therefore.